Of course this was bound to happen. Rather than develop a more complex plotline where Mark and Cliff are properly manhandled by these members of the Brute Squad and have to be brought back to the event in an unmarked van, Rivera decided on the simpler solution of “Mark Wins Again!”

Reader Hannibal’s Lectern wrote a comment yesterday in which he hypothesized that Jules Rivera depicted these security guards as bigger than Mark to symbolize their importance—or perhaps power—in the Woodsman Olympics hierarchy of characters (Go read the rest of his comment if you want the details). However, their physical (and symbolic) dominance didn’t help them. As we’ve seen in martial arts films, the tall and dominant fighters always wind up with their faces planted in the ground by the designated, shorter Good Guy.

Mark appears quite pleased with himself in panel 1, standing between the two security guys, as if he took them both down. Cliff seems to remark on that in panel 4, no doubt because he put in as much effort as Mark, but without the boasting. Are these two now going to race back to the Woodsman Olympics to try and get in a few events without getting expelled? Mark may well ignore his chances of winning the Big Money Grand Prize in exchange for stopping whatever is going on with Tad Crass. But what about poor Cliff?

This really isn’t Cliff’s fight. His kick is not fighting corruption; he wants that big payday. Yet he seems constrained to be Mark’s Faithful Sidekick, come what may. It’s disappointing that Rivera didn’t even bother to have Mark attempt to keep Cliff uninvolved so he could continue to compete and not jeopardize his chances or his liberty. Cliff should have been given a choice!  Just who is the bad guy here, anyway?!

Yeah, I know. I expect too much. It’s just a comic strip.